HitFilm for Linux (Ubuntu mostly)

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I just want to say, every other piece of software I utilize is cross platform, I would be happy if there ever was a version of HitFilm made for Linux. The only reason I am on windows is because I found HitFilm and I understand why it has not happen. Hopefully one day.

FWIW, I'd be happy indeed if Hitfilm ran on Linux too, as it's what I work with the most for my job so I'm already very comfortable with it (especially after years of being a full-on UNIX sys/admin with HP-UX, AIX and Solaris in the past. I'm one of those weirdos you've heard about who actually enjoys using vi LOL).

That said, I can also understand and appreciate the time, expense and effort FXHome would need to put into porting it over, and it comes down to the actual demand for it making it worth their while. But if they ever do, it'll probably be one of the the final hurtles for me as far as the software I consider important being able to run on it, and would finally jump ship at home from Windows. (my wife's already beaten me to it on her own home machine a few years ago, and she never looked back LOL)

I'd just like to cast my vote / voice my support for an Ubuntu version of HitFilm and/or the Ignite plugin library. I'm an owner of the Windows version of the software but having now moved to Ubuntu entirely after falling for the bigger, stronger, faster marketing b.s from Microsoft about Windows 10 (bloated Orweillian crap that use 4x the system resources of Ubuntu), HitFilm and Ignite are literally the only things I'm missing in my tool kit. So I'd love to see a Linux version of the software! But at the very least it would amazing if you made Ignite available for Linux so your plugins can be used in Nuke, Natron and other software that supports OFX plugins. In my limited understand of it, that would simply mean recompiling your C code for the Ignite library as ELF objects, as opposed to DLL objects like in Windows. If you havent considered this yet then please do give it some thought. As an insight, I am a working 3d visualisation professional not a hobbyist and my reasons for using Linux are based on its unparalled performance, I will gladly pay (and have done so) for high quality software available for Linux. My point being there are many more savvy users like me out there migrating from the overpriced, underperforming Windows and Mac OS' s and that number is continuing to grow. So although the estimated target audience might seem small now, forward thinking software developers may help to catalyse the growth of this market (imagine if Adobe released CC for Linux) and who knows, the brave ones who jump first might even capture it.

In my humble opinion now is the time to seriously think about it...I know for a fact that a large portion of small and medium-sized video businesses (among other areas) in the European Union (my company included) are leaving Windows after the W7 and W8.1 security supports ends (January 14, 2020 and January 10, 2023, respectively) due to privacy concerns basically looked-over by the EU.And, again, Mac video and VFX editors are roughly the same as GNU/Linux (Debian to be more specific) because, as I mention below, Apple's ecosystem has too much constraints upgrade-wise.

I'm currently using HitFilm and testing the software to assess if it can be used as a fully operational alternative to CC apps alongside with Blackmagic Design's programs, Lightworks, Blender, Audacity, Ardour, Natron and Nuke (among others, these are just on the audiovisual side of things).

Due to the fact Adobe as no plans to port its software to GNU/Linux I was wondering if FXHome intends to do it... or crowd-funding it similarly to the Mac version.

The recent obtrusive Microsoft data collection tools included on their OS - namely Windows 10 (and sneaky being implemented on W7 and W8/8.1 via updates) - forced me and my company to take a stand and completely move over to GNU/Linux while working on Windows only on isolated machines (connected to the internet just to update security software), so, leaving it would be a better choice. Mac is not an option due to cost/benefit, closed-hardware ecosystem and lack of ability to regularly update machine's components.

Much like the OP, I'm only on Windows because of HitFilm and a few others' Free/low-cost packages that perform unbelievably well but aren't offered on Linux.

I believe that this conversation is one of the reasons that Windows is trying to implement a form of Linux by either creating the dual-boot environment and making it inherent in the OS, or by making it accessible via a virtualbox-style of environment.

Just read yesterday where--despite the big Windows 10 push--only 40% of Windows machines are actually on 10. Windows 7 continues to be the dominant version that people are staying with. Must have to do with all the data-mining...

I think the reality is different. While some can't upgrade due to software constraints or hardware issues, many are not upgrading to W10 due to privacy violation. I can confirm this fact as my company faces clients' distrust of W10 every day.I don't even understand why Microsoft can sell a product like Windows 10 in the European Union when it clearly violates more than 20 laws of "privacy expectation".Responsible companies must obviously look at the terms of use of W10 and just say no, so, no upgrade. Costumer information can't be at risk of being checked by unauthorized third-party companies (Microsoft). Home users is a different matter and they have the choice. Companies can't. They have to respect client privacy.

Yes. I do know and I'm referring to the exaggerated and vague point "we can collect any data from your system and connected devices".Browsers and apps already use what you do on them but from that to collect and archive information of whatever you do on your laptop/desktop is a big step). For that same reason I mostly use DuckDuckGo and VPNs. I'm not doing anything wrong, I just don't want my data or my clients data to be arbitrarily and freely collected by companies.I do use social media and mobile systems but with caution (posts limited to lists, for example) all strictly constraint in terms of what they can access and, no, they do not own your stuff. They can use it with no malicious intent but they can't monetize or gain copyright over what you say or post on their websites, apps, etc (at least of EU users)...

@KevinTheFilmmaker there's still a big difference between privacy issues on a specific website (eg Facebook), where you control a lot of your interaction with it, and on an operating system that forms the core of your interaction with the computer.

Right, but it's no different, because our governments have been doing this for years and years already. I compare this to Snowden usually, because we all knew they were doing it because it's common sense, but we still needed confirmation.

This was disputed in the EU. They can only use it to serve us ads. They are not allowed to use EU citizens' infos and content via third-parties. They can use it for their services and products but not sell or pass them on to others.

The question really is, if the Linux is ready for the consumer market? In my opinion- no. There is no such driver support, sometimes simple problems cannot be solved without a ton of searching and copy pasting commands to the terminal. It is not something that an average user of home computer can handle. For instance, it took me a couple of hours to get the Skype working on the Ubuntu machine! The solution was simple (install 32bit sound lib to 64bit system), but found after choosing keywords correctly. And even afterwards, the quality of sound (in Skype) is lower than on Windows. At home, I would throw the system away and go to buy Windows after 15 minutes

And until the Linux is ready for a consumer market, there is too much risk to port any commercial software to this platform.

mariojrmatos you can reduce the number of information that W10 sends "home"

And, if your don't like it still, you can always put your computers behind the firewall, that blocks the telemetry communication or even in a LAN not connected to the internet- there are ways to do offline updates to W10, I think.

You probably got a defected .iso or hardware conflicts. Try using other drivers (go to Updates > Additional drivers) and use a different audio controller (the default may not work properly with the particular distro you are using).But I agree that for a new user it may be confusing at first but issues with consumer-driven Linux distros like Ubuntu are rare (a specific spin may not work but you'll have one that will run with no problems. If the problem is with hardware is not the OS fault but the hardware provider that has the responsibility of creating drivers for it to work properly), however, we must have the will to learn new things. We also had to learn Windows an Mac OS when they first cam out. In my opinion it's worth it.As for commercial software ports many professionals (and even home users) pay for applications (namely games and production software). The idea that only people who want free stuff use GNU/Linux is wrong. A more accurate statement would be that the OS started being used by advanced users who still represent the major user-base, a reality that is steadily being even up.

Thank you.Yes. I've done that (both operations but offline updates only work sometimes... which feeds my privacy concerns). I created two patches to block W10 phones home but we can only do so much... we are not even close to know how many back-doors the system actually has.

I for one would Buy another license for Hitfilm 4 pro to get it on linux, i think crowd funding the idea via a kickstarter or other would be a good way to see if we the audience can back up what we say with the cash.

No, it wasn't a bad .iso nor hardware conflict. It was 64bit Ubuntu 14.04. And Skype is 32 bit and it needed 32 bit sound libraries installed. Found the solution just after adding 64bit keyword to the search. But nevertheless, it required a series of sudo apt-get in a command line just to have Skype working. The second mystery in our company was a network printer- all Linux computers had the same driver, the same configuration (well, at least what we could see) but for some of us the printer was working, for some- not. Not a problem from Windows machines at the same time.

And the Linux world is full of such hiccups and most of users are not ready (or able) to face it. This is why the porting to Linux is more a risk than opportunity.

This might change in a future, of course, but not in a close future, I'm affraid

People may say anything about M$, but you get from them a wide hardware support, backwards compatibility (my wife is running a 12 years old audio software on W10) and no need to run a command line for most of users. And when something is not working, you have really a bad luck, or have a hardware problem.

No. Not at all. We're just talking and exchanging ideas It's health and highly recommended

It's a lucky strike.I've encountered problems on both Windows and Linux but more on the windows side. My company actually provides specialised services of "transitioning from MW to Linux" and, yes, it's not always possible to do a 100% adoption but close.You might be experiencing some weird issue but try another distro. it will probably work. We have installed and configured 30+ machines/month with GNU/Linux since the beginning of the year, the majority with Ubuntu 14.04 and always with skype, with no issues. Please, report the issue to Canonical.

If you want to run old software Linux is the best choice. My Puppy Linux 64bits, a fully fledged semi-debian-based distro, still runs W95 software with no hiccups.But, I agree, for new users there's a learning curve, as with all new things (the same from Linux > Windows or Linux > Mac OS) although Linux has really taken off since around 2011 (finally and thankfully).

Printers are a rough area... We've never encountered an unsolved problem but the fancy options provided by proprietary printer manufacturers must be either native (built by the companies) or run under wine/play on Linux. Like other hardware, the creators should assume the development of native drivers and software ports to Linux.

As for games I only play a few titles (most of them from 2014 and up) but all run under wine/play on Linux (including my favourite, PES2016) although Steam and the gaming area really changed in the past 4 years.

I want to cast my vote too. If there was a crowdsale to make this happen. I would definitely participate. The main thing that I'd like to see there is Ignite. OFX plugins are really sparse on the Linux side, so I'd imagine it would be embraced very well for those using Resolve, Nuke, or Natron.

I'd serious consider changing to Linux if we had HitFilm on it. I LOVE Windows 7 (and I'm a former Mac OS user) but I'm not moving on to Windows 10. I'm not happy about the lack of privacy, about the almost illegal way of pushing the upgrade, among other things.

But right now I simply can't abandon Windows because I need Premiere and After Effects and there is no alternative for it on Linux. That would change with HitFilm for Linux.

A Kickstart campaign it's a win-win situation. If there is a market, you'll know. If there isn't, you won't expend a penny. Why not?

I undertand that it's more expansive to support a Linux version, but this cost could be reduced if there was a focus on only one distribution (i.e Ubuntu or Mint). So there would be no guarantee that the software would work on other distributions. The support would exclusive for the chosen distribution

Mint is based on Ubuntu, but there is some differences, It's not 100% certain that everything will run in Mint just because it runs on Ubuntu. Mint it's not just a graphic shell for Ubuntu. Sometimes they will have different libraries, because Mint tends to be based on an older version than the current Ubuntu

(Yeah, I don't use Linux but you can see that I really researched about it. I really don't want to update to Windows 10).

To cut costs in term of support for HitFilm, the smart choice would be to choose just ONE distribution to support. Hitfilm would probably work on other distributions, but they would only guarantee in that one.

That's how Autodesk does with Maya on Linux: they only support Maya on RedHat Linux or CentOS (which is the free version of RedHat Enterprise).

It does work on other Linux Distros, but you can' t ask for Autodesk help if something goes wrong there.